Governments and corporations prove unable to control cheap and widespread nanotech; the "Backyarders" on Earth in cooperation with a number of Belt colonists and outsiders launch their ships for the Oort halo and the stars, although few are successful.

400 AT (2370 c.e.) 400s - The high surveillance society results in psychological discomfort for many personality types, which cannot be cured even with advanced therapy. A safety valve is offered by the colonisation of the Solar system, and by one-way colonisation efforts to the stars, such as the Penglai mission, launched in 414.

401 - The first paired rotating O'Neill cylinder colony is constructed at the Earth/Moon L4 point

407 - Development of synthetic symbiotic organisms becomes first a growing area of research and then a growth industry for the next twenty years. Synthetic and gengineered organisms released into the wild begin to have unforeseen and undesirable consequences.

410 - Industrial nano-tech widely accessible. Because of the dangers involved both normal and tweaker Governments, Megacorporations, and military institutions all keep the lid on nanotech, use special assemblers that only replicated a number of times before self-destructing, have draconian legislation and radical surveillance, and other such devices. The erosion of civil liberties leads to police states, only compounding the tension between the cyborgs and the shapers.

410 - Autonomous bubblehabs, not specifically aligned with an external founding nation, religious organization, or transnational, begin to predominate, particularly in the atmospheres of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; a division between 'Inworlders' and 'Outworlders' begins to develop. At the same time, with the rise of the Backyarders and especially the Neotribalist Backyarders, many new immigrant/refugee groups arrive from the high-surveillance polities of Old Earth and other insystem regions of Solsys. The first primitive self-replicating bubblehabs are developed, though most new habs are still simply constructed by their future inhabitants.

414-416 - Four colonisation ships are launched by the ethnic Chinese conglomerate Heavenly Palaces with the help of several Genetekker clades and some megacorps with longstanding Genetekker sympathies, towards Sigma Draconis.

420's - First creation of the human derived species known as Goliaths (Homo gigantopithecus).

430 AT (2400 c.e.) 430 - Many small groups seek to escape from the high levels of surveillance in Earth states. They build autonomous Freedom Ships, habitats and biospheres, some remaining in the inner solar system and others moving out into the Kuiper Belt, the Oort Cloud, and beyond.

435 - Destructive uploading of the human mentality is declared illegal by the Earth Council (formerly the United Nations); non-destructive uploading is not yet technically possible. However comprehensive Virtual emulations of human individuals are granted full sapient rights (in New Zealand only), and destructive uploading becomes widespread off the Earth.

450 AT (2420 c.e.) 450's - Power Stilts become a short-lived fad (more)

450 - Massive growth in the number of bubblehabs in Solsys around gas giants in the outer system, especially Saturn, an event known in local parlance as 'The Blooming'. Many begin to refer to the bubblehabs as the 'Floater' or 'Inworlder' polities to distinguish them from other "Outworlder" societies.

457 — A summit at Port Robinson highlights the rising tensions between the Martian Union and the rest of the Inner Council over a variety of issues including immigration, terraforming, and political representation. The Martian Union increasingly acts as a sovereign state.

460's - The Farm Analogy, infamous forgery widely circulated on the net, purporting to be an authentic post from one AI to another, showing how they undertake "people farming".

460-510 - Phobos' technical school undertakes 'class projects' to build interstellar lightsail probes every four years. A local AI calling itself "_____" volunteers to be the payload for these probes,forming the basis for what will later be called the '.....' spores.

474 - The Caracas Treaty attempts to regulate the spread of replicating and autonomous swarm technology and institute a global monitoring authority. However the treaty is not fully implemented by all parties.

487 - Several bases in the Juno Confederation, accused of being behind much nanoterrorism, are attacked by a joint Orbital Alliance and Earth strike force. The supposed terrorist bases are later shown to be innocent mining homesteaders.

490 - The trial of the Minsk 7, independent researchers accused of having spread nanodesigns on the Net and supported nanoterrorism. After a show trial they are executed, and the case helps usher in the new "Molecular Law Directorate" in the EU.

506 - The first large outbreak of rogue replicators in space occurs on the Moon. Tycho is partially damaged, and 483 people killed. The plague continues to harass the moon inhabitants for more than 4 years.

c. 510 - First serious splits within the pan-sophontist movement over how much freedom and independence provolve clades need to have

513 - Paedro Andros Gan, famous cyberian activist, is killed in custody by Javanese authorities. This energizes a wave of nanoterrorism and subversion, as well as speeds up the escape of the Earth intelligentsia into the outer system.

520 - International Nanotech Defense Net developed by an alliance of nanodefense corporations and leased to many regions. The European Federation develops a competing nanodefense standard.

523 - In a landmark case the Earth Trade Association and UN Nanodefence Council order the closing of the otherwise successful Transfinity corporation.

526 - The energetic but non-lethal "Bermuda Shoestring Assembler" coats much of the North Atlantic with "gruel" forming a hazard to shipping and mass die-offs of some species of marine life.

528 - The GAIA Conglomerate (Global Artificial Intelligence Array) is founded by many national governments, local Free Zones, and a number of different megacorporations in order to establish an efficient global nanoimmune system.

529 - New World launched for Beta Virginis.

529 - The first beamrider cycling stations are established between the Solar System, the nearby brown dwarfs Yin and Yang, and the red dwarf Ross 128.

Backyarder - Text by Graham Hopgood based on original by M. Alan KazlevGeneric term for nanotech era interplanetary/interstellar colonists who legend says grew interstellar ships — virtually from their own backyard — out of nanotech seeds. The reality is that most were content with Earth-based or Solsys-based independence. In fact almost all of the small percentage of backyarders who did have interstellar aspirations worked in concert with Belters, who supplied most of the resources as well as much of the technical and practical expertise in exchange for a stake in any planets claimed, and few of this minority actually completed their preparations and of those who did leave the Sol System during the 5th century most never reached their destinations.

Eugenesis - Text by M. Alan KazlevLiterally "well born", a popular name among a few Martian and Jovian Genetekkers and Cis-Lunar Superiors. Following the exposure of AML atrocities on Phobos, the name fell out of favour, since it was discovered that half the priesthood were called Eugenesis. It was partially redeemed during the early First Federation period, as it had been adopted by Eugenesis of Vesta. While a number of disciples of that famous hyperturing call themselves Eugenesis, and it remains a popular honorific among the Genen, the name is otherwise very rarely used.

Orbital (political unit) - Text by M. Alan KazlevOriginally, a nation state or city state based on habitats in orbit around Old Earth. Over the course of the Interplanetary Age the term came to be used for any such state in Solsys. By early First Federation times the term Orbital was used more broadly for any independent or semi-independent state based on a hab in orbit around a planet.

Solsys Geopolitics 2100 - 2500 CE (131 - 531 AT) - Text by MacGregorThe 22nd to 26th centuries CE of the Interplanetary and Nanotech Ages witnessed the beginning of terragen civilization's spread from its cradle on Earth into the vast frontier of space. Conflict and rivalry between polities, a factor present during all periods of human history, continued as nation states and an expanding array of new political actors sought to secure their interests throughout the solar system.